As we emerge from our coronavirus hibernation, there has been increased chatter about the potential for a rural renaissance.
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Once such article published recently on theland.com.au, "Pandemic could cause regional Australia renaissance", included discussion from a webinar around how much work doesn't need to be done from an office and what that means for our new "normal" from here on.
The logical leap for those with a vested interest in rural areas is, you can move to a country town and bring your job and salary with you.
"I think [post-pandemic] a lot of people will be looking at a town where they can buy their own house, where the kids can walk to school, walk to sport, and not be paying a mortgage off for the rest of their life," said federal Nationals MP Mark Coulton, who was part of the webinar covered in that rural renaissance story.
But if it were that simple then more people would have been headed bush, even before coronavirus.
In 2019, The Land met with four rural communities where it gathered the locals and, with the help of a behavioural scientist and negotiation expert, identified (without argument) what those communities agreed were priorities.
We learned a few things in the process.
Firstly, with the right leadership skills in the room, rural communities can quickly identify and agree on their main priorities.
At Tooraweenah for instance, we had about 10 per cent of the community attend and in a bit over two hours those in the room identified three priorities with unanimous agreeance.
We learned the leader doesn't have to bring the ideas. The community already knows what it needs, but the people in these communities do need somebody to lead and help organise.
That's where the resources (including skills, time and money) become the challenge.
It is therefore no surprise that the RAI had, through its research, identified leadership as one of the four key pillars for the successful advancement of rural and regional Australia.
Rural areas might offer the option to walk to school, or sport, or a more affordable house, but it offered all that before coronavirus.
What's being done to build on that? Jobs, population and livability (the other three pillars) will all improve if we have leadership.
